S12.E17: Finale Part 2: Winner Chosen

[tarotx]

I noticed that they showed the 4 final dancers' dance picks in the order they let them go.

Yeah but that might have been coincidence. Jessica left 3rd last season but her pick was last.  

[khyber]

Just watched my recording of the show. The clear winner for this season is Alex.

[Rahul]

Good god--they really played up that fabricated stage vs street rivalry to the bitter end. So sick of that meaningless gimmick, and I'm fairly certain most other viewers would be glad to be rid of it as well should the show return for another season.

 

Asaf--you are as insufferable as ever.  The sheer arrogance of proclaiming yourself the "hottest" amongst your peers only negates whatever objective/subjective physical attractiveness you may possess. Please get the hell off my TV screen and never return.

 

Glad about Gabby's win. She was excellent in every genre she was given, plus she's the only one of the final four who could pull of a stunning tap routine. I would have been okay with a Hailee win as well because she is pretty damn fantastic.  Even if Hailee didn't claim the $250k prize I'm certain her dance career will be on a meteoric rise so she can take solace in that.

 

I actually liked this week's opening number for a change I think I will go back and rewatch it.

 

Also, I felt that the ballet dancer who danced the Corsaire (sorry, I've only seen him once before (he's gorgeous) and I don't remember his name) was injured during the performance.  Anyone else?

 

I don't know if the ballet dancer was injured, but I did notice he flubbed one of his turns by landing incorrectly and slightly twisting his ankle, and then taking a couple of quick steps to catch his balance.

 

Jaja was second so I think it's fair to assume that the order announced was the official order. No reason to announce Hailee 4th behind Virgil 3rd unless that was the result.

https://twitter.com/DANCEonFOX/status/643611965244370944

 

I don't think Jaja came in second. The whole order of elimination was to serve the whole fictitious "stage vs street" theme so it would be one stage vs one street until the end. I think the order was likely

4. Virgil

3. Jaja

2. Hailee

1. Gabby

[crowceilidh]

Ballet Corsair - I don't know what the technical term for the specific move was where I thought I spotted the response to an injury - some kind of sequential grand jete sequence (my research indicating that this is where the ballet dancer shows off his best stuff in the piece as Nureyev, Tidwell and Wong ALL danced it differently from each other and from Cornejo) where he seemed to land incorrectly some 3 times in a row.  I'll have to watch him again and see if I am remembering correctly.

[crowceilidh]

Nope NOT a grand jete sequence.  He was doing some sequence punctuated by tours (pirouette in the air) and every landing looked painful and like he was not able to land correctly.  He almost seemed to stumble out of each one.

[ToxicUnicorn]

I'm really surprised Gaby won.  I was certain Jaja would.

 

I enjoyed the show.  I thought every dance was better than the original - except maybe the Alzheimer (Jaja-Alex) and contemporary (Gaby, Robert).  Those were my two favorite of the season, though, so it would have been hard to top those.  The group dances finally looked tuned up and the Virgil-Joshua hard hitting hip hop, the Jaja-Ricky Broadway, and the robot routine were so much better excuted.

 

Jaja, Megz, Hailee, and Virgil impreoved significantly over the season.  Especially Jaja.   

 

I'm going to betray my relative lack of love for ballet and admit that I really enjoyed the Jim-Alex duet.  Travis' choreography is very hit or miss for me and I think his duet with Jenna would have been much better if some other male had danced it, but I thought his contemporary for Jim and Alex was quite nice.  But, yes, I never need to see another walk away.

 

Cat looked stunning in that bronze.  She's been especially beautiful this season.

[Anothermi]

Nope NOT a grand jete sequence.  He was doing some sequence punctuated by tours (pirouette in the air) and every landing looked painful and like he was not able to land correctly.  He almost seemed to stumble out of each one.

 

I saw that too. I wondered aloud if something had gone wrong. Hope he is OK. (Historically the So You Think floors have not been good for ballet, but I think that had more to do with toe shoes.)

 

As for the group dances, "favorites" that were group dances have frequently been replays of the original. For instance, Jason's "Ghost" dance pick - or ghost light dance if you prefer - still didn't have Derek in it. He'd injured his back that week and had to sit out the whole episode. Same goes for the Nappy Tabs "Team Street" group number where Burim and Asaf got all that grief for ending up sliding off the stage and not doing some of the choreography. It was a video of that performance, not live.

 

The new group routine was clearly live, but I don't think there is enough time in the week for the top 4 to rehearse all the duets they performed again as well as all those group numbers. Showing the video of those gives time in the show for costume & makeup changes.

 

I kind of liked that they went back to the old format of allowing the top 4 to "choose" their favorite dance - as long as it was one with an available All Star.  ;-P

Yeah, I guess the favorite dances are still preordained by TPTB, but I liked the call back to the days when the final 4 did get to choose a dance to reprise.

 

I think the Finale of the US version has become ... hmm... like an after thought. I always liked the Australian version's final shows. There were only 4 of them but they turned them into a celebration for all the dancers for that season. They even created ways to showcase dancers who left the show too early to really show what they could do. Everybody came back and got a little bit of the spotlight during the final - not as much as the Top 4, but some at least. Favorite dances could be ones done by contestants who didn't even make the top 10! <gasp>

 

This Season 12 one pretty much ignored the non-top 10 dancers and substituted All Stars. There's just something wrong when a season's participants are ignored, or reduced to caricatures (Asaf). Some of the auditioners who didn't make the show were given more time than the ones who did but got booted before top 10. This is actually bothering me more now that I'm writing about it. 

[Anothermi]

Oops. Double post.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Anothermi

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Super bummed that they didn't do a Paula Abdul dance for the finale. I would have settled for bringing back those two guys from the New York auditions who did part of Cold Hearted for Paula.

[tarotx]

Why think Jaja was 3rd? The official twitter calls her runner up. Plus the show could have still had the stage vs Street by announcing your actual 4th place Virgil...

Good god--they really played up that fabricated stage vs street rivalry to the bitter end. So sick of that meaningless gimmick, and I'm fairly certain most other viewers would be glad to be rid of it as well should the show return for another season.

Asaf--you are as insufferable as ever. The sheer arrogance of proclaiming yourself the "hottest" amongst your peers only negates whatever objective/subjective physical attractiveness you may possess. Please get the hell off my TV screen and never return.

Glad about Gabby's win. She was excellent in every genre she was given, plus she's the only one of the final four who could pull of a stunning tap routine. I would have been okay with a Hailee win as well because she is pretty damn fantastic. Even if Hailee didn't claim the $250k prize I'm certain her dance career will be on a meteoric rise so she can take solace in that.

I actually liked this week's opening number for a change I think I will go back and rewatch it.

I don't know if the ballet dancer was injured, but I did notice he flubbed one of his turns by landing incorrectly and slightly twisting his ankle, and then taking a couple of quick steps to catch his balance.

I don't think Jaja came in second. The whole order of elimination was to serve the whole fictitious "stage vs street" theme so it would be one stage vs one street until the end. I think the order was likely

4. Virgil

3. Jaja

2. Hailee

1. Gabby

[Jillibean]

 

Why think Jaja was 3rd? The official twitter calls her runner up. Plus the show could have still had the stage vs Street by announcing your actual 4th place Virgil...

 

Technically, she could be the runner-up because the final contest was between the top dancer on team stage and team street, and Gabby won, making JaJa the runner-up. I couldn't help but notice that Cat specifically said they were looking for the "top dancer" from each team, which really only confirms that Gabby pulled more votes than Hailee and JaJa than Virgil, not where Hailee stood in relation to either Virgil or JaJa in votes. I only noticed because as soon as she said it, my brain immediately went, "that's a pretty specific designation." I think it's entirely possible that Hailee could have had more votes than JaJa, based on the way they did it--it just didn't matter, because it was always going to come down to the top dancer from each team. A Gabby/Hailee final 2 was never a possibility based on the format of this show.

 

I noticed that in the Mandy Moore piece, Gabby didn't lift Robert the way she did originally. They seemed to carefully set up that move so that he was supporting himself while she positioned herself under him without taking his weight. I think it only stood out to me because I was so impressed by it in the original piece. It made me wonder if Gabby already has some injuries, or whether it was just an attempt to avoid an injury in a piece for which she wasn't being judged.

 

To echo others, I also miss when the results show was a celebration of the entire top 20, not just the four finalists. I would have loved to see the wall dance again with Neptune and Alexa, just as an example--and using the other dancers for some pieces gives some relief to the top four. They don't have to be in every single number.  

[tarotx]

Why not do the street dancers first then? Hailee didn't need to be announced as the second place stage dancer first. Virgil could have been announced as the second place street dancer first.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Super bummed that they didn't do a Paula Abdul dance for the finale. I would have settled for bringing back those two guys from the New York auditions who did part of Cold Hearted for Paula.

 

I usually agree with over 90% of what you post, ElectricBoogaloo, but I disagree about this.  I think Paula has gotten lots of little homages throughout the season, and last night, Asaf did (overdid) a little tribute to her.  I like that they had a few clips that showed off the Jason and Paula love.  I'll say it again : I want those two back as judges. 

 

If the show comes back, I know I will keep watching until the bitter end.

 

Twitch looked awesome last night.

 

Same goes for the Nappy Tabs "Team Street" group number where Burim and Asaf got all that grief for ending up sliding off the stage and not doing some of the choreography. It was a video of that performance, not live.

 

I actually thought that was a new performance because I was watching Asaf and Burim.  I thought they were doing a lot better than the first time!  Shows the power of suggestion - I was swept up in the momentum of a good show.  I also thought the Team Street performance was better. 

 

I still think Ghost Light is not a very good number.  I would have far preferred to see the Marie Antoinette one (or whatever that was) instead.

 

Robert is a dancer I enjoy seeing much more than in his season, but I do not think he should wear low riders.  In the bondage-y outfit he had on with Hailee, I was distracted by how unusually long his torso was.  It wasn't a great look for me, and I think that has always bothered me at a superficial level.  I liked his purple pajama outfit in the number with Gaby much more.  He looked lovely there.

 

So happy to see Jim and Alex dance so much, separately and together.  Jim, especially, looked so incredibly happy during the dance with Jaja.

 

There have always been clips of auditioners instead of time on the lesser known people of Top 20.  Not saying that it should be that way, but at least this year, I didn't mind seeing the clips they showed as much as in years past.  And I loved all the surprise guests, esp. the Cyrus and Lil Phoenix duo.  (Of course, Jim/Alex most of all.)

 

Despite slips (and I was worried about the floor for him, as well), I thought guest ballet dancer was stunning.  Maybe I wasn't just looking at his dancing.  (meep!)

[St. Claire]

In my mind, the Alex-Jim dance was set up as follows:

"The storyline of this dance is that we have two very talented ballet dancers and we've brought in a talented ballet choreographer to design a routine for them. Now we are going to let them showcase their talents while we just watch the pleasantness."

[OakGoblinFly]

Jaja was second so I think it's fair to assume that the order announced was the official order. No reason to announce Hailee 4th behind Virgil 3rd unless that was the result.

https://twitter.com/DANCEonFOX/status/643611965244370944

 

 

JaJa was considered 'runner up" because she was the last street dancer standing.  The show continued eliminating one dancer from each 'team' until there was one left before declaring the final winner.

 

JaJa might have very well come in second in votes .... we'll never know unless the powers-that-be decide to publish the final voting results regardless of teams.  The problem with a format like this (or boys vs. girls) is that you can (and often do) lose a dancer with a higher vote total to one with a lower vote total because they had the fewest votes for their team (i.e., a street dancer with more votes than a stage dancer is sent packing because the street dancer had the fewest votes for the street team).

 

That being said, I do think that JaJa likely finished second in votes with a virtual toss-up between Hailee and Virgil. 

[realdancemom]

Super bummed that they didn't do a Paula Abdul dance for the finale. I would have settled for bringing back those two guys from the New York auditions who did part of Cold Hearted for Paula.

I didn't necessarily need them brought back.  However, when they showed a clip of Mr. Hollywood doing his Jason impersonation, I was thinking that I would have rather seen their footage of Cold Hearted Snake.

[tarotx]

Except that they announced we would vote as a top 4 and not as top street or top stage. It's different than when they had a boy winner and a female winner.

JaJa was considered 'runner up" because she was the last street dancer standing. The show continued eliminating one dancer from each 'team' until there was one left before declaring the final winner.

JaJa might have very well come in second in votes .... we'll never know unless the powers-that-be decide to publish the final voting results regardless of teams. The problem with a format like this (or boys vs. girls) is that you can (and often do) lose a dancer with a higher vote total to one with a lower vote total because they had the fewest votes for their team (i.e., a street dancer with more votes than a stage dancer is sent packing because the street dancer had the fewest votes for the street team).

That being said, I do think that JaJa likely finished second in votes with a virtual toss-up between Hailee and Virgil.

Edited September 16, 2015 by tarotx

[poppy-]

Nothing but respect for Jason and Paula as judges. They were good.

Nothing but respect for Twitch, who showed unerring support for the show that launched him and the young dancers on stage.

Travis, though, seemed a little desperate.  He choreographed and danced and coached and speechified.  It made it seem like he knew this was his last gasp on the national stage.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Really? Her? / Just how did America blow a popular-vote reality show this time?

[natman]

Anyone know if the reprise dances are actually reprises and not just video replays?

They are actual reprises. Example: In the originalTravis / Joshua hip hop, Joshua's hat falls off. Not so in the reprise.

[natman]

Very happy with the outcome, IMO it was exactly right. All four deserved to be there, the best two were the finalists and the best one won. For me the most important factor is how well the dancer can do all the various styles. All four were very good, but Gaby did everything very well and her tap solos were amazing.

 

Plusses this year: Camera motion was somewhat less this year. Thank you. No bands hyping their latest pop "hit". Thank you.

 

Minuses this year: No guest dancers. The dearth of ballroom. I can remember one samba, one awful paso double, one token tango. No foxtrot, waltzes, quick step that I can recall. I can't say I miss the quick step, but would an occasional foxtrot or waltz be too painful?

 

All in all a very entertaining season. I sure hope it gets picked up again.

[dcalley]

The dearth of ballroom. I can remember one samba, one awful paso double, one token tango. No foxtrot, waltzes, quick step that I can recall. I can't say I miss the quick step, but would an occasional foxtrot or waltz be too painful?

I think Nigel had said there would be no standard ballroom but that there would be Latin ballroom.

[Cuatro1234]

RE: Gaby vs Jaja for the win:  I get the feeling that Jaja wouldn't necessarily welcome being a backup dancer for JLo.  Seems like she's got her own stuff going already.  So maybe it's better that Gaby won.  Although I'm sure Jaja wouldn't turn up her nose at the prize money.....

[Wootini]

Nope NOT a grand jete sequence.  He was doing some sequence punctuated by tours (pirouette in the air) and every landing looked painful and like he was not able to land correctly.  He almost seemed to stumble out of each one.

 

I didn't notice him slip and twist anything, but I did notice how clunky this sequence was. I was surprised how terrible it was. But if he was injured and still going, I gotta give that guy mad props. Because other than that sequence, nothing else looked terribly off. So good on you, random ballet dude! :)

[OakGoblinFly]

RE: Gaby vs Jaja for the win:  I get the feeling that Jaja wouldn't necessarily welcome being a backup dancer for JLo.  Seems like she's got her own stuff going already.  So maybe it's better that Gaby won.  Although I'm sure Jaja wouldn't turn up her nose at the prize money.....

 

 

The winner is 'offered' the opportunity to be a background dancer in JLo's new Vegas show ...... they don't have to take the contract (much like Benji did not dance in Celine Dion's show).

[DollEyes]

  My feelings about Gaby winning can best be summed up in one word: "meh." The only things I've found memorable about Gaby's routines were her partners, whether it was her Contemporary with Neptune to "Precious Lord (Take My Hand)," her Hip-Hop with Joshua or her tap routine with Zack. Jaja made more of an impression on me in terms of skill and personality. Virgil was basically Fik-Shun 2.0, but since I like Fik-Shun, I didn't mind. As for Hailee, she wasn't my favorite female dancer of the season, but IMO she was still more fun to watch than Gaby.

 

Too bad they couldn't just let Jim and Alex shine with ballet. Travis, if you have a huge introduction to your dance to explain it before your dancers hit the floor, you are NOT a good choreographer. Son meets father who has never been there and son reacts to said father, contemporary dreck.

 

 ITA- a dance should speak for itself. It shouldn't require the choreographer to explain what it's about. If the audience can't get the story without an explanation, then the choreographer hasn't done a great job. Of course, that's assuming every dance needs a fucking story.

 

  Amen to that, on both counts. I like Travis usually and Jim & Alex are awesome, but I was very disappointed by their routine. Not in Jim & Alex, but in Travis & Nigel. They had two brilliant dancers like Jim & Alex, but instead of letting them do what they do best, they got stuck with both a paint-by-numbers Contemporary routine & a bullshit back story, all because of Nigel's hang-ups about routines with two male dancers being paired as lovers. Cat, to her credit, called Nigel on it in last week's episode, after Hailee & Gaby's own gay-themed routine, when she reminded Nigel of another Travis Wall routine with Kent & Neil from several seasons ago, not to mention the routine from last season's finale featuring that Top 4 in a dance honoring same-sex marriage equality, also choreographed by Travis Wall.  Instead of that father/son crapfest, Wall, an openly gay man, should have either cast Jim & Alex as estranged lovers or just scrapped the backstory altogether and let the dancing speak for itself.

 

  News flash, Nigel: you can't have it both ways. You can't have numbers that celebrate diversity but blatantly discriminate against one of the shows biggest fan bases, who happen to be gay men. You've had routines with interracial couples from the start, so if the show gets renewed, I think you should bite the bullet & have routines that feature same-sex couples romantically. Since same-sex marriage is now the law of the land (Kim Davis be damned), I think the show should reflect that & if the show's recent ratings are any indication, you are going to have to get over yourself and do the right thing by one of the few fan bases you've still got.

 

 

  Asaf, being in on the joke only works when the joke's funny.

 

From the PTV review:

 

3. Tatum If You Got 'Em

  Travis and Jenna Dewan Tatum dance a scorching routine that, having recently watched White House Down, feeling a little more generous towards the Tatum family.

 

  That's what it took? You should've held out for Foxcatcher or Magic Mike XXL.

 

tWitch and Channing would have been magical. Why did you have to put that thought into my head? Now I'm even more disappointed with the finale.

 

  ITA. Travis & Jenna were good, but if MMXXL was any indication, tWitch & Channing Tatum not only would have been better, it would have been exquisite.

[ToxicUnicorn]

about Gaby's routines were her partners, whether it was her Contemporary with Neptune to "Precious Lord (Take My Hand),"

Seeing that routine again did not make me like it any better.  If it was supposed to be social commentary, it was the dirt beneath the Jimmy Choo heel of Mad World.  How those both could be Stacy Tookey routines is beyond me.

 

In my mind, the Alex-Jim dance was set up as follows:

"The storyline of this dance is that we have two very talented ballet dancers and we've brought in a talented ballet choreographer to design a routine for them. Now we are going to let them showcase their talents while we just watch the pleasantness."

I read this about 15 hours ago and I'm still laughing, St. Claire!

[realdancemom]

I like Gaby in the geisha routine and her tap duet with Zack.  She was o.k. in her other duets and she wasn't bad in anything.  However, I can also find good and bad things about the other contestants so I didn't care who won.  For Gaby, as I previously mentioned, she doesn't have the It factor for me.  She also doesn't have a look that stands out like Hailee or even Jaja with her beautiful red hair.  So I guess she'll blend in with the other JLo dancers.

 

The one thing that bugged me is that she played along with Nigel's just a tapper narrative.  Even most of the street dancers admitted to being cross-trained like Yorelis, Virgil, and Ariana.  When Gaby was talking about herself, she never mentioned that she was trained in other styles.  She just said that she knew Ricky, Nick, and Rudy.  This makes me crazy when I read stuff on the internet like, "Gaby should win.  She picks up other styles so well that she does contemporary better than the contemporary dancers." 

[Terrafamilia]

Oh, Asaf, you should move to Wisconsin you are so cheesy.

I would have been alright whoever of the four had won.

I was too busy focusing over the fact the ABT dancer looks like he has only half of a left pec to pay any attention to his landings (I am truly superficial).